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I am learning so much. Much of this I have thought of before but without any reference. Just intuition on my part. Thank you LC

I wasnt smart enough to keep it. It had kind of a linen feel but I really am not sure I remember being surprised at seeing faint print on it.

Very true

The Rifle Shop has the parts for what he believes is the rifle they carried. It’s his opinion. Others have differing ones. Who knows whose right

My original percussion rifle had a load in it when I first got it from my dad. It’s been handed down in the family since it was new. The ball was patched with what appeared to be paper torn from a book. Not sure when it was last loaded but they did use something of a patch. LC

As for the rifles of L&C, there isn’t any hard evidence of what they carried. One require the was for the rifles to shave common and interchangeable parts. Since the contract rifles were made by several different makers it’s not think this would be easy to do. I was talking to a gentleman who...

I can’t quote any references, yet, but I have to believe that for meat hunting for survival, long shots were rare even with a rifle. When you have one shot and need to eat, you want to make that shot count. One reason I’ve always hunted with open sight, granted some of my hunting rifles have...

Well I have been doing research as well as asking questions of those who know a lot more than I do. Opinions are all over the board. The bottom line is that either type of long gun is acceptable at a rendezvous now as well as back in the days of the Rocky Mountain Fur. Were smooth bores the...

Perhaps one reason the natives stayed with smoothies was because of a supply issue Lead could only be picked up through trade or conquest. I have an old John Probin double from 1870s that the barrels are wafer thin. The man who used it was a market hunter I So Cal in the 1870s and would use...

My great grandpa was in on one of the captures of Geronimo. Its said that he always claimed that the fastest way to end a fight against the Apache was for them to lose one or two warriors. When your numbers are few losing 1 can mean a lot. The hard part was getting the 1.

I have popped a spruce grouse when out to take care of natures call. Woke up on morning up in the Pasayten with a big ol mule deer standing over me looking me right in the eyes and my rifle leaning against a tree across the camp. Damn how I love the back country. In reading about the Indian...

All very good information. Thank you. I plan on building both the fowler and the JJ Henry Lancaster. I am sure that the smoothie will fit in at rendezvous along side the trade rifle. Most of my deer hunting is in fairly heavy timber or recently logged areas where a 75 yard shot is a long one...

There have been many great points in this thread, some I had already considered and some I had not. I have always felt that if one was heading west from the settlements no matter if it was in 1810 or 1840 they took the weapon they had. If it was a smooth bore or a rifle, they knew the weapon...

This was an excellent thread, thank you all for all the great information. I am a greenhorn when it comes to the real history of the western fur trade. For many years I have read the journals and historical writings of the Rocky Mountain trapper. My first and only muzzle loader has been an...